Summary There is now an epidemic of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) occurring in parallel with persistent epidemic of Communicable diseases in developing countries. Unfortunately most developing countries do not have the manpower and infrastructure to respond adequately to this problem. Hitherto, the response of governments and developing partners has also be inadequate. For example, even though there were less than 5 million deaths from HIV/AIDS worldwide in 2005, HIV care and prevention programs received $2.5 billion from donors. In contrast, there were 25 million deaths from NCD in the same year but donors gave only $200 million towards NCD care and prevention. A major factor influencing the tepid response to date is inadequate appreciation of the size of the problem, its main characteristics and possible public health interventions. This is directly related to low levels of research into the problem. In this proposal, we use a combination of short, medium and long term training programs, based locally at our partner universities in Nigeria - University of Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo University in collaboration with US universities - University of Maryland and Harvard University - to develop capacity in Nigeria for NCD research. This proposal delivers training in epidemiology and biostatistics that fills critical gaps in research capacity through innovative combination of curriculum revision, introduction of case method approach to teaching, capacity development cascades, mentor-the-mentor paradigms, step- down trainings, visiting professorships and international fellowships. It rapidly builds capacity of mid and senior career faculty to improve the quality of their current research and enable them to engage with emerging NCD research activities in Nigeria while preparing them to become mentors, in collaboration with international faculty, of early career Nigerian faculty who gradually assume leadership positions.